#oh and one thing: the point of this series of TV gifsets of mine is to use newer contents to fit the old tracks but | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sirtadcooper · 3 years

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🎨 (ah i just saw this! if it’s not too late!!!)

Nik, thank you so much for sending this! It’s probably escaped everyone’s notice by now but this ask game actually expects me to pick one of your latest ten edits. I just thought that was worth pointing out because that is not happening with anyone else and it’s certainly not happening with you. I also usually try to put them vaguely in order of preference but not this time because they are all my preference.

SUN and MOON - Only the first edit I am going to review and already a Masterpiece. The gif layering! The animation! The use of colour! It’s all so pretty and well thought out. The first gif is probably my favourite of the four, it’s just so neat. The falling snow with the yellow filter over it almost looks like sparks, it adds to the pretty.

DIN DJARIN + Troubled Birds Memes / GROGU + Troubled Birds Memes - There are memes and then there are Memes and both of these posts definitely fall into the latter category. When I saw that gifset of Din and the troubled birds for the first time I was laughing so much, I was so tickled by the idea and how well chosen the quotes were. You have managed to have gifs with impeccable comic timing! The way that on some of them the whole quote doesn’t appear until just the right frame... ugh, it’s perfect.

I want more... and I know I shouldn’t. - I love the text effects in first and last gifs, the unexpected use of pastels in association with Darth Vader of all people! It works! The big letters in the boxes are really neat. The layering of scenes is perfectly done. They both bookend that glorious middle gif with the rippling water. I... I don’t know how you did that but it’s incredible.

KELLY MARIE TRAN - Oh how I love this! The way that you’ve picked a colour palette and stuck with it is fantastic. The second panel with the TVs is great and probably my favourite part, just such a clever idea and it’s coloured so well. The first and last panels with the torn paper to tie them together are really pleasing and how could I not mention her gorgeous angel wings and halo in panel three? This is just wonderful. It’s what she deserves.

Day 7: Free Choice - The way these panels are all so different in style and yet they go so perfectly together... I’m in awe. You just have a great instinct for positioning things within a space and using colour to its full potential. You’re amazing.

“Beopero? That’s how they say Pedro… on Mars?” - As usual I don’t know how you did this but I love how it’s animated. Just takes this post to a whole other level! The little “like” heart that pops up, the incredibly realistic swiping animations, and the cute videos! Excellent choice of posts as well and I love how you have coloured them.

Escalating degrees of laughter/wheezing - Gosh this gifset makes me smile so much! I love that I have something in common with Pedro, and that’s the wheezing and rocking back and forth when I am really laughing. I love that you have told the story of Pedro’s laughter, it’s not just a random collection of moments of him laughing, it’s in order of his self control. You’ve really thought about this. That’s very galaxy brain of you.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Agent Whiskey) - Sometimes on Tumblr.com an edit is so good, you remember the first time you saw it no matter how many more times you come across it. This is one of those times. This was my first time seeing rotating text like that and it blew me away. You know the best part? It’s seamless. These boots are made for walkin’ just goes around and around and Whiskey in the background just goes around and around and you don’t know where the gif actually begins. That’s brilliant. The text animation on all of these gifs is inspired but it’s the first gif that lives in my mind rent free.

“How would you like to ride home on a real cowboy?” - You... *through tears* made this. I love that you have used a more muted colour palette this time around - I associate a bright blue with Whiskey so strongly, it’s refreshing to see other colours with him. The ye olde Western style just works so well here. Each of these posters has clearly taken a lot of time and effort. I think my favourite is the first, it was just so unexpected but wonderful!

“They all hate you, Mando, because you’re a legend.” - This colour palette! The little animations! The glitching helmet! Wee Grogu and Din with shadows that overlap... oh the Symbolism. This is just perfection.

“Sometimes you gotta do bad things to catch bad people.” - Your poster series is beautiful! This is another favourite of mine. I love that the colour palette is the colours of the Columbian flag. His own words on his skin on the fourth one as he struggles to carry the weight of them... really powerful. The colourful silhouettes on the third, the way they move! And the relatively simple first one with that bright red. The use of black and white and shades of grey throughout, like Javi’s morality... Yes. This is the good stuff.

Purple Rain - Fun fact! This was the first edit of yours that I ever saw (on 11th March, please write down our anniversary for future reference) and I loved it! It was so creative, I thought. Using the photo of him in the water was very clever. I naturally have a soft spot for this one. :)

If you don’t accept me for who I am with my frog then… go away. - This post baffles me. Where are the notes!? I thought this was funny! Din loves him despite the warning signs frog. The frog in Tom Holland’s mouth has mysteriously disappeared recently... Grogu has declined to comment.

trust me, i went to college - Just a big “YEAH!!!” for this post. You have captured my thoughts completely. Why he so broaaaaaad? I love his floof. His happy crinkles. This!!! Yeah, this is a Good Post.

So, Nik, I have made it to the end of your creations tag. I have written this very long essay for you. Your creations here, what you can do with Photoshop, is just incredible. I barely mentioned how perfect your colouring always is but that’s because it constantly gets overshadowed by the creativity you pour into each of your posts. You’re always experimenting, trying something new, surprising us. You have just got a talent for this. You’re an inspiration to me and, I’m sure, many others. I wish you and your Photoshop program a very good day. :)

creators send me 🎨 and i’ll tell you my favourite of your last ten creations and why

#sith-maul #ask #i'm sure there are a million typos in this haha #it's the Gushing it messes with my brain #but i wrote every word of this for the love of nik!#🎨 reviews

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panharmonium · 4 years

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Hey! Loving the Merlin takes on ur blog, and I wanted to ask—what are your opinions on Morgana? Haven’t seen a lot of talk abt her. I loved her, esp in season 1, which is also my fav season cuz after that I feel like things started to make less and less sense, lmao. I understand her descent into villainy (mostly, but why does she start to hate Gwen so quickly? feel like that could’ve been handled better) but I would’ve loved to see some solidarity between her and merlin!!!!!

hi there! :D

so, i LOVE morgana. most of what i’ve said about her has been in the tags of gifsets that are now scattered haphazardly around my blog; i don’t think there are larger pieces yet besides my finale round-up (urgh lol), and most of that is just a function of time - i can’t possibly write expansive tracts of meta about every single merlin thing i love, because i love the whole show; i’d never leave my computer again. i generally sit down to write long essays about whatever grabs my mind at a particular moment, even though there are a bazillion other things out there i love just as much. XD

but with morgana, i also feel like part of the reason i haven’t written much about her is because up until three and a half weeks ago (....oh my god, was it THREE AND A HALF WEEKs??? IT FEELS LIKE A YEAR) i hadn’t even finished the series yet, and the whole time i was watching this show i was sort of...waiting to see whether they would finally tie her arc together. i didn’t feel like i could say too much about what was happening with her, because my evaluation of her arc was going to depend on where the writers finally chose to take it and whether they brought it to the place i thought it needed to go.

and...they didn’t, obviously, which is what i sort of suspected would happen, though i was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt all the way up until the end, because i don’t believe they ever wrote themselves into a corner with her. there were things they could have handled with more depth, definitely, but i do not believe that they ever dug themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

i. what happened to you, morgana

essentially my opinion (just mine; nobody else is obligated to share it) of morgana is this: that the series ended before her arc was over.

to me, season 5 was the nadir in our characters’ journeys. they had reached their lowest point, their...“darkest hour,” to quote the show itself. and in many familiar storytelling formats (the ones that have the most in common with bbc merlin, at least), we take our characters to a moment where they hit rock bottom, where everything is going wrong and things seem hopeless, and then we light a spark under their butts that starts the process where they fight their way out of it. the nadir isn’t the endpoint of the curve; it’s the point where characters start climbing their long, slow way out of the pit. it’s what they have to overcome in order to earn their eventual triumphant ending.

to me, season 5 was that nadir, for morgana and everyone else. i never would have imagined season 5 to be the final season of the show, if i hadn’t known it was beforehand. i would have read season 5 as the show’s ‘empire strikes back’ moment. the episode that ends with our team losing, but with a whole other episode remaining where they can fight to Make It Right.

i view merlin bbc as tantamount to a cancelled tv show, to be honest. i know that’s not necessarily what happened (though it does feel pretty weird that they officially announced S5 would be the final season only four weeks before the finale was about to air?? very bizarre), but regardless of the actual behind-the-scenes-whatever, the fact of the matter is that for me, the series doesn’t end. it stops. and those two things are not the same.

this is particularly relevant to morgana because, as you said, there are aspects of her character arc that weren’t handled as deftly as they could have been, but if the show had brought morgana’s arc to the place where it felt like they were going in 5.09, they could have rescued so much of what came before.

to get into more detail -

i think the biggest issue with morgana’s arc for me isn’t so much what she does, it’s what we’re not shown as she does it.

i fully believe that morgana would eventually start working to ensure uther’s downfall. (obviously. she’s been presented as the voice of moral authority on this show since episode one, and there’s no reason to believe that she wouldn’t ultimately start rebelling against the king’s oppressive policies.) i believe that she would reject arthur, eventually. and i believe that she would reject gwen, too. but i don’t believe the show illustrates enough how painful this would be for her, or how conflicted it would make her feel.

and again, as i said, there are my own personal opinions, couched in...some personal experience with certain kinds of family conflict - but i do understand where morgana’s bitterness toward arthur and gwen comes from. arthur, for all that he’s “a better man than [his] father,” never fully breaks with uther the way morgana does. he has his own little rebellions, yes, but ultimately he always falls in line. he tolerates his father’s actions even if he doesn’t necessarily agree with them, and he continues to support uther even after uther is revealed to have lied about being morgana’s illegitimate father. and because of this tacit acceptance of uther’s poor behavior, arthur reaps benefits and privileges galore. morgana is cast out with nothing, whereas arthur, who didn’t even take a stand for justice, wants for nothing. arthur is sitting pretty on the throne of camelot because he continued to bestow his honor and respect upon a man who deserved neither of those things, because he chose the villain of the series over his sister, even knowing what uther did to her. and that’s gutting, for her. he betrayed her.

(and there are things to be said on arthur’s end of this, too, of course - morgana doesn’t ever confide in him; she doesn’t come to him for help or give him a chance to even be informed about what happened to her before she jumps into invading camelot and dethroning uther - so for arthur, her sudden turnaround comes as a total shock, and HE feels betrayed, like he has no choice but to fight her - i mean, it’s just a big mess.)

but i understand why she hates him. he continues to stand with a man who did demonstrable evil, despite the harm that was specifically done to morgana herself. and by shutting up and letting atrocities be committed in front of him, arthur escapes the harm that morgana suffers for speaking up. i understand why morgana is so bitter about it.

and gwen is a very similar situation - from morgana’s point of view, gwen is playing the arthur to arthur’s uther. gwen sides with arthur over morgana, despite knowing full well that arthur’s policies harm people with magic. gwen abandons morgana for her love interest, and for morgana that’s just like - “why would you do that? i was your friend before he ever cared about you, i loved you before he ever did - don’t you see the evil he’s perpetuating? don’t you care what he does to people like me?”

that’s why morgana tells merlin, “don’t think i don’t understand loyalty just because i’ve got no one left to be loyal to.” she feels like everybody who supposedly cared for her ultimately dumped her because her situation interfered with their comfortable, morally uncomplicated lives. they weren’t willing to acknowledge what was done to her, and they stuck by the man responsible for it, and it seems incomprehensible to her, that they would make that choice, when his misdeeds are known and out in the open. i can’t blame her for wanting to raze the city to the ground.

HOWEVER.

while i believe that all these things are completely plausible, i don’t believe that the series shows us appropriately how these things would be tearing morgana apart inside, underneath the rage and the armored front of ‘you brought this on yourself, so burn in hell, i don’t care.’

there are moments where the show gets it right. when morgana wakes up after uther dies and says that she felt his pain - it’s not presented as gloating; she’s - almost confused. uncertain. like she doesn’t know what she feels. when she confronts arthur at the end of season 4 (i thought we were friends/as did i) there’s real pain under the surface there. when they confront each other at the beginning of season 5, too (what happened to you, morgana/i grew up) - you can feel the undercurrent of something deeper there, too. and that moment with mordred in 5.09, when he appeals to her humanity (i hope one day you will find the love and compassion which used to fill your heart) - that is an amazing scene. the show absolutely nails that moment. morgana hesitates. you can see the grief and the - the conflict written all over her face. it’s perfect. it’s exactly the turn i would have expected morgana’s arc to be taking, at that time in the series.

but then the show just stopped. and without taking morgana’s arc further - without following it through all the way to its conclusion - there’s never any resolution to all the ways the show dropped the ball earlier. all the moments where morgana appears to be just...evil-smirking her way through her revenge, the way she suddenly seems to have no feelings for gwen whatsoever, the utterly lost opportunity that was the “enchanted gwen” arc (which could have been such a powerful exploration of their broken relationship) - all those could have eventually made sense and fit into a narrative where morgana’s conflicted feelings finally begin to escape the stranglehold in which she has them choked, where we start to see the pain of these destroyed relationships rising to the surface.

i can understand how morgana would just - shut off her feelings about these people. she had to close her heart to them - the alternative would have been too painful. but underneath - we know it wouldn’t be that easy. we know it eats at her. and it’s just - so incredibly frustrating that the series was starting to go there - the moment with mordred in 5.09 feels like the beginning of morgana’s big crisis of faith - and then the show just Stops.

so the thing about morgana for me is that, like you said, the show does drop the ball on illustrating her quick descent into evil-villain territory, and they especially drop the ball on her break with gwen, but all of it could have been salvaged, if they had committed to following her arc all the way through to its conclusion. instead they chose to kill her (and everybody else, lol) just as her deep-rooted internal conflicts were finally starting to rise to the surface.

ii. we can find another way/there is no other way (aka the merlin problem)

i’ll say right up front that anything i say here is, as always, just my personal interpretation of things. this is not necessarily the One True Way this show is meant to be understood; it’s just my own preferred read.

i have definitely seen some things in my brief foray into internet fandom that are sort of...piling on merlin for abandoning morgana or “gaslighting” her, most of which seem to be centered around the beginning of episode 2.03, which is weird to me, because the whole point of that episode is that merlin does help morgana, in the end - he’s the one who doesn’t gaslight her. he defies gaius and takes her to the druids, specifically so they can tell her yes, she does have magic. he tries to distract the attacking knights in order to enable morgana to escape with the druids permanently, like she wants. and when the attempt fails, and they’re brought back to camelot, he comes to morgana’s chambers specifically to check on her and to assure her that he won’t reveal her secret to anyone, and she’s grateful for this - she thanks him, she’s appreciative of everything he did for her, she feels comforted to know the truth and to know that someone else knows it, too. this episode ends with their relationship at a high point - it’s overwhelmingly positive, and it doesn’t take a nosedive until 1.12, when morgana gets in way over her head and merlin thinks she’s trying to murder them all. (and even in that episode, it’s worth it to note, merlin is still covering for her magic in front of arthur, giving her chances.)

(and obviously also, of course, the end of that particular situation gets Real Bad Real Fast, which could be a whole post in and of itself, so let’s stay focused on the earlier eps, for now.)

the criticism of merlin in those earlier episodes seems to stem solely from the fact that he doesn’t out himself to morgana, which i can understand - i mean, i like the idea of a ‘merlin+morgana secret magic squad’ AU as much as anyone - but i’ll be honest and say that nowadays, i’m not quite as willing to condemn him for it as i might have been on my first viewing.

i’m not willing to condemn him for it at all, actually.

(and again - as i said, these are my own opinions! everybody else is welcome to have different opinions! we all engage with media differently, and there isn’t a right or wrong way to approach this situation, just whichever way feels best to you.)

so, for me, i’m not interested anymore in telling merlin that he should have revealed himself to anyone, at that point in the story. it would be different if he had been like - continuing to tell morgana ‘oh, no, you don’t have magic, don’t be crazy,’ or if he had been pretending to hate magic like everyone else so he could blend in, but he doesn’t do that, at the end of the episode. he sends her to the druids. he chases after her when he realizes she's in danger. he openly acknowledges her magic, he supports her in having it, he makes sure she knows she has nothing to fear from him. by the end of 2.03, he’s gone to great lengths to help her; he’s already made certain that she knows he’s on her side and that she can trust him. she clearly knows that he accepts her and that he supports her - those are his responsibilities to her as a fellow human and as a friend, and those are exactly the responsibilities he makes sure to fulfill. she knows her secret is safe with him.

now - whether or not merlin feels safe enough to out himself, after making sure morgana knows he accepts and supports her, is his own business.

i think there are a number of reasons why it wouldn’t be fair for me to criticize merlin for continuing to conceal his secret, the first of which is something i already mentioned in another piece - that a marginalized person’s first responsibility is to their own safety, when forced into hiding under oppressive social conditions. merlin isn’t obligated to reveal himself for anybody. he’s not obligated to put himself in danger out of some kind of...responsibility to the community. (not at this point, anyway. it gets more complicated later, as merlin becomes more powerful, which i also address in that other piece, but that’s all in the future for him and not relevant at this moment.)

i think it would be easy for me to forget that merlin isn’t safe, in the early seasons. we’re so used to thinking of merlin as ‘the greatest sorcerer to ever walk the earth,’ because that’s what we keep being told he’s going to become, but again, that’s all so far in the future for him. merlin in the early seasons can do some things with his abilities, but not consistently, and not to the level where we can reasonably expect him to resist the entirety of camelot’s army, if they were to come for him. merlin is in real danger, and he’s not evil for being unwilling to share a secret about himself that would ensure his death, if it somehow got back to the wrong people.

second - i don’t think it would be fair for me to discount merlin’s personal history, either. merlin’s life didn’t start in camelot, and he hasn’t even been in camelot for all that long, comparatively, by the time we get to S2. season one takes place over a few months, starting in either spring or summer and ending in the fall (after the referenced harvest in 1.10/1.11, but before winter sets in). the weather is nice by time season 2 starts, so we can probably assume that S2 takes place once winter has passed (although, it’s technically possible that S2 takes place over the same autumn as S1, I guess...but it’s not made clear to us, timeline-wise.) either way, we just really have to remember that merlin’s stay in camelot by the time we reach 2.03 is still this blip compared to the rest of his life.

it would be very easy for me to say that merlin should have told morgana, that there’s no way she would ever have given him up - and i probably would have said that very thing, after the first time i watched the show - but like - nowadays, i really think i have to step back from that certainty and be a little more gentle. we say we “know” that morgana wouldn’t have willingly betrayed merlin’s secret at that point, and sure, i agree, that’s probably true - but does merlin know that?

of course not!

i think he hopes that. i think he would dearly like to believe that. i also think merlin grew up in a situation where he couldn’t fully trust even the people he’d known all his life, with two (vital!!!) exceptions, and he has been in camelot with a bunch of brand-new people for less than a year, and he can’t be certain of them, however much he wants to be. (and that’s not even considering the possibility of accidental betrayals, or coerced ones - remember, the witchfinder shows up in S2 also, as just one example.)

remember that exchange merlin has with freya, later this season?

“you can’t always trust people.”

“i know. that’s why i left home.”

merlin is not used to showing himself to people. he has been taught all his life to NEVER, EVER show himself to anybody. everyone in camelot who finds out about his magic finds out either by accident (like gaius or lancelot), or necessity (like freya and gilli - though gilli is interesting, because i think merlin’s decisions there are motivated precisely by the choices he didn’t make with morgana - which i’ll go into more later).

in twenty-odd years, merlin has only ever told one person about his magic. and even that generous assumption requires a little bit of inferencing for us to determine, though i think it’s likely enough, if not confirmable.

(i am, in case it’s unclear, referencing 1.10, when merlin is explaining to will why hunith sent him away to camelot: “when she found out you knew - she was so angry.” that, to me, has always been a signifier that merlin told will about his magic, as opposed to will finding out by coincidence. i know there are a lot of headcanons floating around out there about various...accidental situations that may have occurred which forced merlin to reveal his magic in front of will, and those are all obviously totally fun to play with, but after hearing this particular line - i never understood that to be the case, to be honest. we’ve seen hunith enough to have a pretty solid understanding of her character. she and merlin are always easy and gentle together, she’s so kind and calm and thoughtful - i can’t imagine that she wouldn’t have understood, if there had been some kind of accident that forced merlin’s hand. she’d be just as afraid for his future safety, of course, and she would have wished he’d told her right away, but she wouldn’t have been “so angry.”

...she might, however, have been “so angry” if she’d found out that merlin had specifically undermined every sacrifice she’d ever made to keep him safe/ignored every single one of her warnings/rejected every cautious thing she’d been telling him for his entire life and TOLD somebody about his magic when it wasn’t remotely necessary. that’s the only scenario i can imagine that would prompt merlin to say “she was SO angry” in that half-awed, half-intimidated tone, with that little headshake, like it was such a singular event, like it’s still formidable for him to remember.)

so anyway, that said - it’s too easy for me to say ‘he should have told morgana/gwaine/gwen etc; they would never have turned on him,’ as if it would have been such a simple thing for him to do, as if there were no dangers associated with their knowledge even if they would never have willingly given him up, as if he was refusing to do it because he didn’t want to, or because his fears were overblown, or because he was foolish for thinking they would ever hate him for his gifts. i think that really minimizes the reality of his struggle, and the danger of his situation. without the pressure of some crisis to force his hand, merlin has only ever willingly revealed himself to one person. that person is dead. that person died specifically ensuring that merlin could stay safe and hidden from the rest of the world, morgana included - merlin’s continued secrecy is a gift that was bought at an impossibly high price, and it’s not simple for him to contemplate squandering it, especially with no guarantee that things will turn out okay.

because there IS no guarantee that things will turn out okay! a lot of the “merlin should have told morgana” online talk centers around the idea that knowing about merlin’s magic would have kept morgana from feeling alone/betrayed, thus preventing her from turning to the “evil” methods she uses later, but again, i don’t think we actually know that at all. solidarity between merlin and morgana would have been a nice thing, definitely; i’d like to see that too, but i don’t think the fact that she and merlin are both magic-users would have guaranteed harmony between them. merlin and gilli are both magic-users, too, and merlin expects this to be enough to convince gilli to “see the light,” but the fact of the matter is that merlin and gilli just have very different ideas about what it means to do the right thing. merlin thinks it means biding his time and waiting for change to come from the top (because he’s been TOLD by greater powers that this is the right course of action, of course; let’s note again that merlin’s situation is extremely complicated) whereas gilli thinks that doing things merlin’s way makes merlin complicit with an unjust regime. gilli says ‘i shouldn’t haven’t to wait for someone else to give me my rights. i’m going to take them myself.’

the fact that merlin and gilli share a bond as magic-users doesn’t protect them from an ideological divide that puts them on different sides of the same struggle. i’m not sure that merlin and morgana wouldn’t have still ended up in the same situation, eventually, if merlin had chosen to out himself to her - but doing so would certainly have made him a thousand times more vulnerable to attack.

third - it’s also important to remember that if we’re going to hold merlin to this rigid ‘he should have told morgana everything/confided in her/trusted her at the expense of possibly his own life despite the fact that she exists at the completely opposite end of a rigid social hierarchy as him and he’s known her for less than a year’ then maybe we ought to raise the bar for morgana, as well. morgana is very clearly shown to trust and appreciate merlin at the end of 2.03, but by 2.11, when alvarr and mordred show up and convince her to steal the crystal of neahtid, she doesn’t hesitate or come to merlin at all, despite the fact that we never see him do anything to lose her trust between then and now. she never asks him for help, even when she’s uncertain about alvarr’s methods, and that leaves merlin in the dark, only privy to confusing images of her sneaking around and acting suspicious. and even with that, merlin doesn’t condemn her for what she does, the same way he doesn’t blame her when she tries to kill uther in 1.12 - he helps arthur retrieve the crystal, but he doesn’t give morgana up. and he doesn’t hold any kind of grudge, either - in the next episode, merlin doesn’t even suspect her, at first - he thinks it must be her magic protecting her; he doesn’t even consider the idea that she has anything to do with the illness, not until kilgharrah tells him.

and even after that, he STILL covers for her in front of arthur, and he gives her a chance to come clean to him - but she doesn’t take it.

i’m not condemning her for that - i get why she would be afraid to admit to such a big mess - she was in way over her head and didn’t know what to do. but if we’re going to cut morgana this much slack and accept her fears as a valid enough reason to block a potential moment of connection, then we have to accept that merlin’s fears were valid, too - morgana’s descent into “villainy” was not something we can pin solely on merlin’s already overburdened shoulders. the end of season 2 was not some kind of one-way failure.

in summary: merlin and morgana were trapped in an impossible situation. they were both victims of the same oppressive regime, and both of them had very real, very dangerous obstacles to letting themselves trust in and reach out to others, and i think pitting them against each other while forgetting who the real villain was is unfair to them both.

also, a brief postscript: circling back to the first section of this piece, where i talked about how season 5 just stopped before anyone’s arc was finished - merlin and morgana could have had so much more, if we’d gotten another season. their relationship is really in the pits, by season 5, but there is this deleted scene where arthur is reflecting on what happened to morgana and blaming himself, and merlin says arthur shouldn’t take the blame, that “there were others better placed to help morgana” (implicating, of course, himself) and that was SUCH a jumping off point for their story to have continued. merlin wanted to do better by her. he blamed himself for what happened to her. and morgana, for her part, was starting to question herself, as we saw during her confrontation with mordred in 5.09.

there were places for this relationship to go. it wasn’t a lost cause. but the writers decided that it made more sense to just...eliminate everybody at the exact moment when things were poised to possibly change.

the story wasn’t over at the end of season 5. but the show was, and i am always going to regret those many lost opportunities.

#the once and future slowburn #meta #replies #long post

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bomberqueen17 · 4 years

Text

missbuster replied to your post “the untamed”

is this the chinese series with the wigs and the elf robes?

oh yes. occasionally i’ll be watching and i’ll be like huh, aesthetically, this is the silmarillion right here

lazaefair replied to your post “the untamed”

Ah, the joy of trying to render a non-latinate language in latinate symbols

yes ugh

fortunately i have enough prior exposure from gifsets and shitposts that mostly i can keep people straight. and, as dude pointed out, they very kindly dress in themed uniforms by family, so that’s super polite of them.

popkin16 replied to your post “the untamed”

ISN'T IT WEIRD BUT GOOD?

I mean. clearly, a lot of the weirdness is that it’s leaning on tropes I’m totally unfamiliar with, like how buddy cop shows all use the same camera angles and hallmark movies have the formulaic bit where you take the whole thing on faith as having been established somehow by sheer weight of expectation-- clearly, there must be similar conventions in Chinese television dramas that I’m just not familiar with, so maybe the WILDLY SWINGING CAMERAS are just part of that, and so on.

And the fact that people fucking fly for no reason all the time, I have no idea if that’s like, just normal on Chinese TV or if that’s just for this show.

but yes, it is deeply bizarre and also extremely compelling. I blame the Pretty People In Semi-Unconvincing Wigs. The Man With One Facial Expression Only is so pretty and really gets a lot of mileage out of the only facial expression they let him have (and most of that mileage is furious gay pining which I am so here for). And his brother, with the Square Righteous Jaw And Kind Eyes, he is also so lovely. And our doe-eyed mischievous protagonist whose names are the only ones I can remember because his family name is the same as that of a roommate of mine from college (why is his family name different from his siblings though do they explain that??? also it is only three letters and i am very stupid so three letters is what i can handle and as a bonus they are pronounced like they look like), he is also very beautiful. And I only just met Wen Qing but I want to cradle her adorable sticky-outy ears, she is so pretty. IDK why I can remember her name but I super can. Maybe because nobody seems to call her anything else and she’s one of like two women. She kind of pouts sometimes and that is all I want to look at in this world, thank you for being so pretty, nice lady from Evil World. Gosh I hope she has a nice time in this show.

(I know that she will not. I know that is the point of this show, literally nobody has a nice time in it. I have, after all, seen the gifsets. I was a little startled to see the dripping-blood-hand-off-a-cliff part so early, actually; I sort of figured that was a spoiler but no, this show takes no fucking prisoners, that is the opening scene. Okay then!)

#missbuster #lazaefair #popkin16 #the untamed #the silmarillion but they fly sometimes

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ctl-yuejie · 5 years

Text

the grandmaster of demonic interior design or mound squatting & a smitten renovator

⇨ for @howdydowdy who wisely suggested a home renovation tv series au based on my crack gifset

Ia . IIa . IIIa . Ib . IIb . IIIb. Ic . IIc . IIIc . Id . IId . IIId . Ie . IIe ⭐︎ . IIIe ⭐︎⭐︎ . extra

(longest part yet....)

Ie.

Wei Wuxian panics.

“Lan Zhan!” He softly prods Lan Wangji’s cheek with his finger. “Lan Zhan! Are you okay? What happened?” Lan Wangji’s skin is hot under his touch and it hits him. “Are you drunk? Lan Zhan-ah, Lan Zhan-ah, it must have been hard on you today. Thank you for keeping troublesome me company. But you really do have to warn me before passing out like this.”

After checking Lan Wangji’s vitals he almost cries laughing, unsure about what to do next. His fingers now rest on Lan Wangji’s cheek, his thumb drawing soothing circles.

The film crew has left him, the squatters have scattered and he is stranded in this town he never really intended staying in with the Hanguang-Jun, passed out drunk.

Most likely the footage they have will never get aired in fear of the Wen clan pressing charges for trespassing and the bombardment of cease-and-desist-orders they might unleash.

Just then he starts to feel sorry for everyone involved Lan Wangji’s phone rings. Whoever is calling is quite persistent so he fishes the phone out of Lan Wangji’s pocket and takes the call.

Lan Xichen has already heard about the incident on Burial Mound. If he’s surprised that Wei Wuxian picked up the call he masks it well. After assuring him that Lan Wangji is fine, just incapacitated, they exchange some small-talk. He promises Lan Xichen that he will look after his brother and somehow that is enough for him to leave Lan Wangji in his care without further questions. Weirdly stumped by the progression of things he hangs up, not able to recall what else their conversation was about.

He wants to return Lan Wangji’s phone when the background picture catches his eye.

A dark and a white bunny are snuggling in the lap of someone wearing the traditional white Lan sect garments, the edge of a Guqin visible in a corner. Wei Wuxian is hit with a sudden feeling of deep fondness and silent realisation nagging at the back of his mind.

He pays for the drinks, pushes the still passed out Lan Wangji onto his back and stumbles into the street.

Despite having held out on Burial Mound for quite some time, he’s actually not that familiar with the town itself, nor does he have any clue where Lan Wangji’s hotel might be. Lan Xichen might have told him on the phone. Well, that’s not of any help then.

He hoists Lan Wangji higher, heart beating faster when his head drops onto his shoulder. With his free hand he thumbs over his display in deep thought. MianMian should be in Yiling, shouldn’t she?! He opens up their chat and texts a ridiculously desperate sounding message, begging for a place to stay. Before he can switch his screen off her reply appears in the left corner.

MianMian > *9582 <

Followed by an address in the city. “No!” He hears Lan Zhan mumble against his ear. “Lan Zhan! You are awake! Come tell me the name of your hotel!” MianMian’s apartment surely’d be nice, but hotel beds are a thing. Also sharing a hotel bed with Lan Wangji is a possible thing. “No!” Lan Wangji says again.

MianMian > That’s the pin for the 🚪! Am away on business 🌈💪！Help yourself!💕<

It gets more and more exhausting dealing with Lan Wangji on his back, who now for some reason is trying to reach for Wei Wuxian’s phone. “Stop it! Just tell me where you stay Lan Zhan!” He can’t help it if it comes out whiny. “I stay with Wei Ying.”

Oh.Oh! He didn’t even consider bringing Lan Wangji back to the hotel and staying at MianMian’s by himself. Oh.

“Lan Zhan! Let us at least get your things, or you will be very embarrassed when you wake up and have no change. Please tell me where your hotel is, yes?” Despite MianMian’s offer, the hotel bed still sounds very soft and nice. “No. I stay with Wei Ying.” Wei Wuxian sighs. “Do you like MianMian?” Lan Wangji sounds like he’s tearing up. Wei Wuxian sighs again, fondly.

He quickly texts MianMian, now balancing a very sad second young master of Lan on his back.

> Is there room for two. drunk! half of the lan twin jades is with me. dont’t ask. < YuanDao

MianMian > 👀< MianMian > only one 🛏< MianMian > ... <

> Thanks! I owe you! < YuanDao

MianMian > you already do. don’t get the precious ✋✨jun killed. <

He knows that she tortures him on purpose with the emojis but retaliation has to wait.

Luckily Lan Wangji gets easier to handle once he puts his phone away. He looks almost cute when Wei Wuxian flags down a taxi and gives the driver MianMian’s address, which makes Lan Wangji’s face light up.

Once they are in the small but tidy apartment, he lowers Lan Wangji down onto the carpet and plops down next to him, exhausted from the walk.

Under the harsh overhead light, he feels like he’s waking up from a dream.

“It’s always like that you know,” he tells a solemn Lan Wangji, who’s head is swaying into the direction of his shoulder. “I get attached. And then I let go.” Surprisingly Lan Wangji seems to have found his voice again. “Don’t you get lost?” Wei Wuxian shivers. “It’s a bit disorientating, for sure.” Lan Wangji turns to look at him, like he wants to anchor Wei Wuxian, help him stay fixed at his side. He fails moments later when his eyes become unfocused. It is very endearing.

Later, after drinking some water and refreshing themselves Wei Wuxian starts to feel better.

There is no need to feel so weighed down when there’s Lan Wangji by his side. Pretty and immaculate Lan Wangji. He chokes on a laugh when he comes across the scene in the bedroom. The pretty and immaculate Lan Wangi is currently levelling a stare at his sash, still too intoxicated to will his fingers to untie it. “Lan Zhan, let me,” he offers softly and Lan Wangji obediently moves his hands out of the way, looking at him expectantly. The outer robes are removed easily enough, he doesn’t dare to undress him more than that, only pulling out the hairpiece to make it easier to lie down. It feels surprisingly heavy in his hand.

When he looks up Lan Wangji has fallen asleep. The clock on the bedside table reads 21:01. He snickers, silently leaving the room.

Their robes reek of smoke and dead soil. Wei Wuxian strips down to his shirt and underwear, putting the rest inside the washing machine.

It takes him some time to find the right setting, hoping that Lan Wangji’s robe won’t get too damaged.

Finally finding a minute to breathe he’s confronted with a whole other dilemma.

Thinking about lying next to Lan Wangji in bed had felt so natural, but now he’s unsure whether to follow through.

It suddenly feels rude to just sneak under the covers without permission. Shamelessness was usually his strong point, so what made him hesitate now? There’s only one bed, it’s not that he has a choice. And Lan Wangji had insisted to come with him. Leaving without him had been no option anyways.

He gets startled by a noise at the entrance. Sticking out his head from the bathroom he finds Lan Wangji rearranging their boots, putting them in a neat line, toes pointing towards the door. Wei Wuxian’s body shakes with silent laughter. He really wouldn’t want to miss Lan Wangji at his side. Especially when he’s like this.

“Lan Zhan?” He tries calling out. “Hm.” Oh, he’s sober again. “Lan Zhan, how are you feeling? Why don’t you sleep some more?” Lan Wangji just stands there in the narrow hallway, looking a little bit forlorn in just his undergarment. He lifts his head to meet his eyes, the amber hardening in determination. “Will Wei Ying sleep as well?” “Sure! I can’t leave you unsupervised, not when you just passed out in public.” He tries to lighten the mood, but the flirtatious jokes taste stale on his tongue. But somehow Lan Wangji understands, his gaze softens as he beckons Wei Wuxian back into the bedroom.

He throws himself onto the bed and hears the light switch click, the small lamp on the bedside table being the only thing left to illuminate the room. A small haven of light. Lan Wangji follows, sitting gingerly down on the edge and turning to look at him.

He props his head onto his crossed arms, searching for the right words. “Lan Zhan...I...thank you.” Lan Wangji’s posture stiffens and Wei Wuxian springs up, urgency written across his face. “Sorry, I’d thought. I....no one...I never wanted to tell someone so much about my projects – and you listen to me! – even when you ignored me in school.”

He’s now sitting next to Lan Wangji one leg dangling off the edge.

“Always listened to you.” “What?” “I – always listen – to what you say. Now. Back then.” “Huh.” It is really too easy for Lan Wangji to make him speechless. “But, I mean...I really want to be around you, to have you with me and have you show me your world. Like I did with mine. And if you’d want that then...”

A finger brushing the bangs out of his face stops him mid-rambling.

“You. Want to be around me?” Lan Wangji sighs the words in tentative relief, a smile on his lips.

He carefully moves closer. Lan Wangji doesn’t pull back. Soft light bathing his face in warmth. Wei Wuxian holds onto his robes, feeling Lan Wangji’s hands close around his.

Their lips meet in a soft kiss.

He’s so overcome with joy, he feels like he might burst. He wants to pull away, to place more kisses on Lan Wangji. The tips of his ear, his neck, anywhere he can reach.

But Lan Wangji’s other hand moves behind his head, holding him firmly into place, fingers getting tangled in his hair.

Wei Wuxian smiles against his lips, desperately clinging onto him.

Lan Wangji is there to ground him, intently pulling him close and letting them both fall onto the bed.

He wakes up to Lan Wangji calling his name.

It is way too early, whatever Lan Wangji is saying, his brain doesn’t compute, so he settles on inspecting Lan Wangji’s face between yawns.

“Wei Ying.” He gets called softly and doesn’t know what to do about it.

Rolling onto his other side he reaches for his mobile phone, checking the messages that have been piling up overnight.

Lan Wangji lies completely still besides him.

Grandmother Wen has sent him a couple of reassuring and warm-hearted messages and Wei Wuxian is relieved to know that they all found temporary places to stay at. The last thing she sent is a short voice message, so he opens it. Ah-Yuan’s cheery voice gets blasted through the room.

“I hope Xian-Gege is alright! Tell Ah-Die that granny invites him to dinner! He was so cool yesterday, I was flying with him, Xian-Gege!”

Lan Wangji stills even more, stumped by the message. Wei Wuxian finally shakes off his worries and rolls around laughing. “Congratulations, you are a dad now!” There is still no reaction from Lan Wangji.

Still laughing he scrolls through his feed, slowly remembering yesterday’s frustration. It looks like no one is talking about the Burial Mound incident, just some people demanding to see Wen Ning again, and Lan Wangji seems to have been really too drunk to remember anything.

His thumb swipes faster, irritation building up inside of him.

Lan Wangji suddenly sits up, startling him.

“I can make them broadcast yesterday’s footage. If you want me to.” Wei Wuxian decides it is finally time to meet Lan Wangji’s eyes, even if it’s only to try and discern what is going on in his mind. “I will talk to my brother about it.” Wei Wuxian sits up on the bed as well. “I really don’t want the crew to get sued.” “They won’t, –” Lan Wangji looks genuine– “and the law firm can handle the rest.” “You would do that?” There is it again, yesterday’s silly happiness making him feel giddy. Lan Wangji gives him an insistent nod. “It is a good cause.” “You will be made an outsider if your name gets tangled up in this. Don’t you have a scholarship to protect?” “Not that important.”

He affectionately strokes his cheek, and Wei Wuxian knows that he remembers.

That he still feels sure of...whatever they are.

Lan Wangji will make the broadcast happen, not only for him but for the community and for the cause.

Filled with so much love and hope Wei Wuxian excitedly flops around on the bed. “I could use some of the footage I took in the chaos and upload it as a preview on my site to draw attention!”

Lan Wangji looks approvingly.

He loves it when Lan Wangji looks approvingly.

Catching Lan Wangji in a boisterous hug he peppers his face with soft kisses, and he can feel Lan Wangji smiling before he is pulled into his lap.

IIe

#the untamed #the untamed fanfic #lan wangji #wei wuxian #wangxian #mdzs #mdzs fanfic #fanfic #the grandmaster of demonic interior design #ctlyuejie writes #uhhhhhh almost finished :"D #tumblr won't let me format this in peace

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